Monthly Archives: June 2023

YOU WILL NEVER THIRST AGAIN

Christian Life, ,

YOU WILL NEVER THIRST AGAIN

“Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up into eternal life.’ John 4:13-14 (NV).

The woman Jesus met at the well outside the village of Sychar was an outcast of society. She was living with a man who was not her husband after being divorced five times. The people of the village shunned her. She must have felt embarrassed because she went for water in the middle of the day instead of in the early morning or the evening which was the time of the day when the village women went to the well. 

Her story was the same as the story of many women. She was looking for love in the wrong places and leaving behind a string of broken relationships because the men she thought would love her only used her and then threw her away!

She was astonished when a Jewish man spoke to her at the well. No Jew would speak to a Samaritan, especially a Jewish man speaking to a Samaritan woman. That was her first surprise. Her second surprise was that Jesus understood her so well. He knew that she was thirsty for love, and He also knew that she would not find real love from men who selfishly used her to satisfy their own lust.

He told her that He could give her the kind of “water” that would satisfy her thirst. Although she did not understand at first, He meant that He could give her the love that no man could give her. He was not speaking of the “love” she was looking for from a man. He was talking about God’s love which would satisfy her thirst for love forever. 

Every human being needs to be loved. We cannot survive without love, but the love that we have for one another is conditional. We love our husband, wife, parent, friend, child when they please us. If they don’t, we withdraw from them, we punish them by saying unkind words or withholding our care or our friendship, but God is not like that.

Jesus was offering her a love that would not reject her no matter what she said or did; a love that would always be kind and compassionate, a love that would never end and from which nothing could separate her. He called it “water” – something that would quench her thirst to be loved so that she would not need to live an immoral life to satisfy her craving for love.

When we receive God’s love, our hearts are so much at peace that we do not need to live sinful lives like she did to find love. It no longer matters whether the love of our husband or wife, father or mother, brothers or sisters, or friends is not perfect. God’s love is perfect, and we can always be secure in His love. We will continue to be thirsty and continue to drink at the wrong fountain until we submit to the Lord and receive His love forever.

WAS JESUS TOO NICE?

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WAS JESUS TOO NICE?

“Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about Him. Some said, ‘He is a good man.’ Others replied, ‘No, He deceives the people.’ But no one would say anything publicly about Him for fear of the Jews.” John 7:12-13 (NIV).

People will always have divided opinions about Jesus. No one can ignore Him because, if what He taught about God and Himself is true, we must do something about it. If not, then He was the biggest liar that ever walked this earth.

What the people said about Him must have been very difficult for Him. “He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him.” John 1:11 (NIV). The Message Bible says, “He came to His own people, but they didn’t want Him.”

Why was it so difficult for people to receive Him and His message? Was it because He represented someone who was too “nice”? Many of them were happy to receive what He did for them, but they did not want to listen to what He said and showed them about God, His Father. Not even His brothers trusted Him although they had grown up together.

Why are people so suspicious about God’s goodness? Is it because Adam traded his oneness with God for oneness with the devil and now does what he wants? He is a liar and a deceiver and destroyer, and we are all born with his nature. When we have been “born again”, it will take a lifetime to rebuild our trust in God and get rid of our suspicion so that we can become confident in the reliability of God’s word and His ways.

We are all so self-conscious that we look at God through our own unreliable natures and our experience of other people. We think God is like us.

Jesus’ own family and everyone else around Him were hostile towards Him. Some made a feeble attempt to defend Him but, overall, they dismissed Him as a phony. They accused Him of being in league with the devil and doing the devil’s work. Some even thought He was mad.

Perhaps what Jesus said and did was just too good to be true. People were afraid to put their faith in Him in case He let them down and He turned out to be a fraud. With their hopes of Messiah so high and their hatred of the Romans so great, they could not afford to trust someone who might fail them. Their disappointment would be too great.

God’s counsel to Jeremiah when he was hated and rejected was, “Don’t change your words for them. Let your words change them.” This is how Jesus approached the situation. He made no apologies for what He said, and He stuck to the truth. He was not put off by their rejection of Him because He was representing the truth.

Despite people’s attitude to Jesus today there are still those who listen to Him and follow Him. They find that was He promised is true, forgiveness, peace and real life.

INTERRUPTIONS

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INTERRUPTIONS

“Then, because there were so many people coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, He said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’

“So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place…. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So, he began to teach them many things.” Mark 6:31-34 (NIV).

How did Jesus handle interruptions? Certainly not the way we might have done. Our first thought would have been for ourselves. We might have been irritated by all these people and would have wanted to escape to carry out our original plan. All we would have wanted to do was to get away from the crowd to rest and have time out with Jesus.

Not Jesus! He tried to get away from the crowds, but they beat Him to it. Why didn’t He simply go somewhere else – somewhere they didn’t anticipate? He didn’t try to dodge them. Instead, He welcomed them with a heart of compassion. They had no meaning and no direction in their lives and no-one to lead them. Jesus’ heart was for them, not for Himself. He put their needs above His own.

Is this what He meant when He said that a disciple is someone who denies himself? Self-denial is not just going without to adhere to some sort of rule. I think it means that we choose to put the needs of others above our own, and here is a good example of self-denial from the Master Himself.

I wonder what the disciples felt about this interruption. They were probably looking forward to a day alone with Jesus, relaxing out in the open and enjoying being away from the crowd. They must have felt frustrated, irritated, and even fed-up with Jesus. Why did He have to be so accommodating?

What was the difference between Jesus and His disciples? Their first thought was for themselves and their own needs. They were tired. They needed rest. They wanted to be alone. Jesus was also tired, but He saw people who needed another kind of rest much more that He needed a day off. These people were struggling under the heavy yoke of legalism, and it wasn’t working. They didn’t need more religion. They needed a shepherd to protect and take care of them. That is exactly what He came to do – and He was not about to miss an opportunity like this.

If we are true to our calling to be followers of Jesus, here is an example of real self-denial. Jesus did not just pretend to be nice to the crowd. He had plans for the day, but He changed direction without giving Himself another thought because the people were more important to Him than His own plans or comfort. Their needs were greater than His own.

And He calls us to follow Him.

DIRECTIONS FOR A NEW DAY

Christian Life, ,

DIRECTIONS FOR A NEW DAY

Every day is a new opportunity! Yesterday has gone forever, tomorrow is not yet here. How can I live today that will add meaning to my life and the lives of others?

Jesus gave us a lifegoal which should apply to us every day. He said, “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33 (NIV). So, what should be our focus in our everyday lives, taking into consideration that we are not alike?

In a nutshell, God is more interested in our character than in our circumstances. Jesus said that we behave like pagans when we run after ‘things’ instead of seeking His kingdom. When we give our attention to taking care of our needs, and those of our families, we miss what God wants, our trust in Him as our Father, and the freedom to learn about the things that really matter.

Life is not about surviving in a tough world. That is God’s responsibility because we are His sons and daughters. Life is about learning to be His mature children so that we can be part of His ‘business’ on earth – His kingdom. It’s not only about this life – it’s also about preparing to play our part in the life to come.

This life is short. God has built into us huge potential; both the possibility and the opportunity to become like His Son, Jesus, in the same sort of world that shaped Him into who He was. This may not seem important to us in an environment where God is ignored, despised, or forgotten but, to us who believe in His Son and have been rescued from hell, it ought to be big.

It was big for Jesus. He always viewed situations from the perspective of God’s rule and He always took the long look – seeing this life as a very short preparation for the life to come. He saw worry as a foolish response to our needs because worry exposes our actual attitude to our heavenly Father. Worry cancels out faith and puts fear in the driving seat.

So, what should our response be to the pressing needs we face every day? Jesus said, ‘Set your sights on looking for every opportunity to do the right thing.’ That means imitating the way Jesus loved and served people, trusted, and obeyed the Father and always put the needs of others before His own. When we do that, we show our absolute confidence in God’s promise to take care of us and, best of all, we get to know Jesus and become like Him.

In this way, we will be well on the way to fulfilling God’s dream for us, a family of responsible sons and daughters who are just like His Son, Jesus, and whom He can trust to run His world under His authority in the life to come.

OUT OF HIS MIND?

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OUT OF HIS MIND?

“Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that He and His disciples were not even able to eat. When His family heard about this, they went to take charge of Him for they said, ‘He is out of His mind.’” Mark 3:20,21 (NIV).

They thought He was out of His mind, but He could not have been saner! It was not Jesus’ behaviour that was the problem. It was the madness of the crowd. They wanted what He could do for them. In typical mob fashion, they had no respect for Jesus or for one another, everyone pushing and shoving, everyone trying to get near Him for what they wanted, impatient, disorderly, rude, and demanding.

Family and friends heard about it and tried to get Him out of there as though He were unable to take care of Himself. They thought He was helpless to do anything about it. They wanted to disconnect Him from the suffering and need of the unruly crowd, but they could not. Mark’s record tells us nothing about the outcome. They wanted to rescue Him, by force, if necessary, but did they? No! Jesus would not permit anyone to do anything to Him that was not allowed by His Father. Even though they were not aware of it, no-one could do anything to Him that was not part of the Father’s plan.

Jesus showed His total command of the situation by His response to the Pharisees’ accusation and His family’s attempt to intervene. The religious leaders thought Jesus was in league with demons. He was using black magic to deceive the people. He was deliberately stirring up this irreligious mob because He had a hidden agenda. By seducing them with magic, He wanted to raise an army of followers who would stir up trouble against Rome!

Jesus’ reply was masterful. With the deft strokes of a master artist, He painted a word picture of the implications of their accusation. It was not Rome that was the people’s problem but dark spiritual forces that held them captive – deformities, diseases, depravity that held them in their grip. Would Satan be so foolish as to use someone in league with himself to break his power over them? Not likely! Think again, you fools! Jesus was no magician!

What does this mean for us today? Jesus cares about human suffering. He cared enough when He was here on earth, to risk the anger and hatred of the religious leaders. When He healed people on the Sabbath, they accused Him of breaking the law of God. But Jesus’ attitude was different. Was it better to love people enough to make them well on the Sabbath or to ignore their needs just because of laws for which their tradition demanded obedience?

Jesus loved people enough to heal them wherever He went even if the Pharisees didn’t like it. He wasn’t interested in setting them free from Rome. He wanted them free from bondage to the devil. That’s who Jesus really is!